IN Technology

From January 25 until January 27, buyers and sellers can arrange trades on the secondary market as usual, but Facebook attorneys will not approve the transactions until next week, the people said.

Companies may freeze stock trades before a material announcement, such as an IPO filing or an acquisition, to protect themselves against liability, said Sam Hamadeh, chief executive of PrivCo, a company that researches private companies.

Facebook’s highly anticipated IPO is expected to be one of the largest ever, with some estimates putting a $100bn valuation on the company at the time of the public offering. SharesPost, a group that facilitates the sale of private company shares, lists Facebook’s valuation at $80bn, based on recent trade data.

Mr Hamadeh said: “There’s been so much expectation for two years, that any day now, Facebook is going to file. A lot of that has been wishful thinking, or hyping the stock.

“This is the first, confirmed, verifiable signal to us that this is very real.”